


a little further down the flower path

by bookinateaspoom



Category: After School (Band), NU'EST, PRISTIN (Band), SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Gen, pledis is trash, this is a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:49:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23257948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookinateaspoom/pseuds/bookinateaspoom
Summary: Jiyoung calls in her hoobaes to a Pledis leaders meeting?
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	a little further down the flower path

“Hello? Jiyoung-noona?” Seungcheol paused to listen. “Alright, I’ll bring Jonghyun and Nayoung along.”

Seungcheol had been about to head back to their dorm when he got the call, but now he was headed to the basement, hoping to find at least one of Jonghyun or Nayoung in a practice room. He heard from their manager last week that NUEST W will be making a comeback in November. And so it made sense that he found Jonghyun practicing with his members.

What surprised him was Minhyun’s presence. “Minhyun’s here?” Seungcheol asked Jonghyun, eyeing the group now huddled over. Jonghyun had called for a break after noticing Seungcheol by the door.

Jonghyun smiled excitedly. “Yeah, sometimes he’s here to practice alternate blockings for the new songs.”

“That’s great!” Seungcheol could relate to practicing and even promoting with incomplete members. “Though I think I caught you in a bad time. I was hoping to take you somewhere. Jiyoung-noona called.”

“Jiyoung-noona, huh. Why so out of the blue?”

Seungcheol gave him a sheepish smile, like a kid who stole a cookie from the jar. “I think I said something bad but also good.”

“I guess I’ll know more about it if I come along?” Jonghyun asked.

“But I can’t just take you away from your members.”

“Don’t worry, we were just about to wrap up,” he answered as he was packing his bag. He let the rest know he’ll be leaving ahead of them. Facing Seungcheol, “I’ll have a quick shower and change, then I’ll meet you at the lobby.”

Seungcheol nodded. “Alright, I’ll look for Nayoung.”

“Nayoung too? What does Jiyoung-noona want?”

Seungcheol had an idea what their sunbae could want to talk about, but he thought the best time to tell would be when everyone was together. So he shrugged in answer and heads out the hall to check the other practice rooms. “See you in the lobby, Jonghyun.”

He found all the other rooms empty, except the small make-shift studio at the end of the hall. It reminded him of Jihoon’s little nook from pre-debut days.

“Hey, _gongju_ ,” he called, loud enough to be heard over headphones.

Siyeon turned around in her wheelie office chair. “Oppa, what brings you?”

He paused to consider whether it was alright to let Siyeon know. On one hand it might make her panic, a company sunbae wanting to meet all the leaders. On the other, he thought who was he kidding – this is Siyeon. He had literally called her a princess, meaning Pledis’ princess, a few seconds ago. Not unwarranted, because she had been in the company even longer than he had. She’d been here when After School’s activity was fading into nothing.

He ultimately decided to keep details to a minimum. “I’m looking for Nayoung.”

“Why?” Siyeon’s furrowed brows signalled her intrigue. The boys rarely had reason to come looking for Nayoung, even those who were her same-age friends.

Seungcheol managed to keep a chuckle to himself. Trust Siyeon to let nothing get past her. Along with the others, he teased that she could be a CEO someday – especially when she started her Ddiddi Bakery Vlives – but he actually thought that with such her determination, sharp mind, and wit, she could make it.

“Jiyoung-noona called and wanted to meet up at her house.” He knew Siyeon wouldn’t let that slide, but he had to try, right?

True to his gut feeling, Siyeon threw him a questioning look. “Did you do something, Seungcheol-oppa?”

Seungcheol decided to try just one last time to keep her ignorant. “Well, I didn’t terminate my contract.”

Siyeon laughed aloud at that. “Yewon-unnie and I had a good laugh about that. The two of us were practicing together when the rumour broke.” She chuckled again, although now humourless. “It was funny for the five minutes it lasted. But what are _you_ really up to?”

He sighed. At her raised brow Seungcheol finally answered, “Alright, alright. Jiyoung-noona wanted to meet me, Jonghyun, and Nayoung to talk about something.”

“Oh,” was all Siyeon could answer. The humour left over from earlier now completely gone. It seemed like she knew what Seungcheol did but didn’t press further.

Seungcheol tried to give her a reassuring smile. “I’m sure it’s not anything serious. Just a catch up and all.”

Siyeon nodded and offered helpfully that Nayoung would be finished with her classes in a while. “You could just pick her up from the university before heading to Jiyoung-unnie’s. Tell her I said ‘hi’.”

Seungcheol didn’t know if she meant Nayoung or Jiyoung-noona. He didn’t catch the PRISTIN girls practicing together much these days. Who knew when was the last time Siyeon met up with Nayoung?

“Thanks. I’ll leave you to your music, then. Jonghyun’s probably already waiting for me in the lobby. Good luck, _gongju_.”

Siyeon smiled in thanks, put on her headphones back, and turned again in her wheelie to face the monitor. Seungcheol quietly wished her more luck before going back up.

He had to wait ten more minutes before Jonghyun got back. In that time he had already sent Nayoung a message and booked a taxi. “Siyeon let me know that Nayoung’s in school. Her classes are about to end and she’s already agreed we meet her in Dongduk.”

“Is your manager driving us?”

“Oh, no. I didn’t want any of them knowing…”

Jonghyun’s eyes widened at that, but didn’t raise his suspicion about it. Seungcheol, being the one Jiyoung-noona called, would know what’s best. “Ok, let’s call a taxi?”

“Already booked one. It’s outside.”

Both of them had made sure to bring a face mask and dark beanies to cover up when they arrive at the university. It was a women’s university, after all. Fortunately, Nayoung was already waiting for them at the main entrance.

“Did it take you long to get here?” Nayoung greeted them.

“It was okay,” Jonghyun answered.

Seungcheol offered to take her book bag. “Siyeon says ‘hi.’”

Nayoung laughed a little. “Ha, did she manage to fool you into thinking we don’t see each other? I dropped by earlier and said hi to her at her little studio.”

Seungcheol flushed in embarrassment and Jonghyun laughed a little louder than polite. “She’s really an annoying dongsaeng, huh.” The two could only agree good-naturedly.

“Should we go now?” Nayoung prompted. “It’s almost evening.”

As a precaution to possible speculations of why the three of them were on the subway together, they decided to book another taxi to get to Jiyoung’s house.

Inside the car, Jonghyun shot Seungcheol a questioning look. “So why exactly are we going uptown to Jiyoung-noona’s house?”

“Did you do something?” Nayoung asked.

“Everyone I told today asked me that!” Seungcheol mocked being offended. “I think Jiyoung-noona wants to discuss what I said in my solo live yesterday…”

Neither Jonghyun nor Nayoung monitored Seventeen’s activities, since usually artists just kept posted about other artists through their managers. Neither one of them had an idea what had gone on in Seungcheol’s Vlive.

“I said that I value the members more than the company.”

“Heol-!”

“I’ll reserve my questions for later. I’m sure you’d rather not have to defend yourself twice,” said Nayoung.

“Don’t make it sound like I’m going on trial.”

Jonghyun eyed him teasingly. “You’re answering to Jiyoung-noona. You might as well be on trial.”

“We’re just kidding, Seungcheol. If you’d like, we can talk about it now so you can explain yourself better later.”

Seungcheol briefly thought about it, but considering they were only thirty minutes away from Jiyoung-noona’s house, there really wasn’t much time. Might as well not work himself over it.

“Thanks, Nayoung. But we’ll be there in a blink of an eye. Let’s just face the judge head on.”

Just as predicted, they reached Jiyoung’s apartment building soon enough. The receptionist already knew to allow them up Jiyoung’s floor.

Their sunbae greeted them at the door. Jiyoung was dressed casually and had a reserved smile for them.

“Good evening, sunbae-nim,” the three of them greeted back nervously.

Jiyoung chuckled. “You still can’t help it, can you? You already call me noona or unnie in other conversations. You can greet me casually, too, you know.”

The three young ones visibly relaxed at this. The tension eased more when Noah toddled over to them at the entrance.

“Hello, Noah-ah. Unnie, he’s grown so much.”

Jiyoung smiled proudly. “And he’s been such a good big brother to Sion, too.”

“Is Sion and Junmu-hyung here, too? I hope we’re not bothering you.”

“Seungcheol. I was the one who called you here, remember?” Jiyoung chided. “Junmu went out to take Sion for a regular check-up. It’s just me and Noah here now. You three go sit at the dining table, I’ll order us some ramyun.” She looked sharply at the three before saying, “The good kind, not the crap you had to eat as trainees.”

In the short amount of time she phoned the order, the three’s nerves went up maximum again. When she went back to the kitchen, Seungcheol was fidgeting with his ring. Nayoung was playing with her hair. And Jonghyun was staring off the distance.

Jiyoung sighed quietly. “Relax,” she said abruptly. That had the opposite effect, but at least the young ones were startled into attention.

“Noona, I can explain-!” Seungcheol started.

“Seungcheol, I said to relax, not to explain yourself immediately. You all tell me first what’s been happening with your lives.” She set down cups of tea for each of them then sat at one end of the table.

“Seungcheol caught me while practicing with the members. He won’t be in the November comeback but Minhyun was there too. He’ll be joining us again soon so he joins practice whenever he can.”

“I was heading back the dorm when you called. The members wanted to practice today, for the Encore concert.”

“I…” Nayoung started softly. “I went to my classes today.”

Nayoung was seated at the opposite side of the table from Jonghyun and Seungcheol. The two men didn’t know whether to look at her directly and ended up looking down the cups offered to them earlier. The topic was obviously something Nayoung had a hard time talking about.

Jiyoung clearly understood. “We’ll eat then we’ll talk, alright?”

In the minutes that passed, all of them were quiet, except Noah’s periodic babbling on the baby monitor. Jiyoung had thought it would be best to leave him to himself in the playroom while she talked with her hoobaes. Jiyoung wanted to listen to them well and give them the best advice that she can. Noah would grow tired from playing and sleep off.

They didn’t have to wait much longer for the ramyun to arrive. Jiyoung instructed the three to set plates and utensils and to get some banchan out from the refrigerator. Then she headed to collect the delivery. They worked around the kitchen quietly, words seeming to escape them. When the table was all set, Jiyoung cheerfully told them to enjoy the meal.

Unfortunately, that was a task too big. The quiet was disconcerting, Jiyoung didn’t dare bring up anything too serious. She commented how the ramyun was good, but also said that she had been to Nayoung’s parents’ guksu place. “They serve quality noodles there. I’ve also seen that they have pictures of you in the restaurant. They must be very proud of you, Nayoung.”

Nayoung thanked her politely and the conversation awkwardly ended there. Jiyoung stood to get another pitcher of water but came back with a bottle of soju. “I thought we might need some drinks when we talk. You’d like chicken’s feet with this too?” That sufficiently cheered them all up and Jonghyun suggested a nearby place that had good spicy chicken’s feet for delivery.

This time they didn’t wait for the food to arrive and Jiyoung just went straight right in. “Seungcheol, what was going on in your mind when you said that? It was sweet, yes. But it was also unbelievably careless. It might harm your members in the future!”

Seungcheol blinked. He knew that wasn’t the most brilliant thing he said on a broadcast. Sure, the fans had been all over it. He had seen the comments on the Vlive and later on in the fancafe.

Even he noticed that the members were acting more affectionate and grateful towards him when he had gotten back with them after the Vlive. He hadn’t the chance to talk with the members yet but he knew that Jeonghan had a piece to say about his whole statement too. Jeonghan had insisted that they speak about it before the day ends but Jiyoung had called Seungcheol to meet up. Seungcheol already let him know he won’t make it tonight. Seeing that he didn’t even receive an acknowledgment however, Seungcheol was willing to bet that Jeonghan was presently accusing him of being a coward.

One of the managers had also told him off briefly but didn’t really explain much to him. He had wanted to ask some questions, but had judged his manager’s sour demeanour, finally deciding not to give him any additional problems.

He expected that whatever he didn’t think of, Jiyoung-noona will tell him now.

“It’s useless to try to lie to you, noona. In that moment I honestly thought it was a sweet thing to say.”

Jiyoung-noona sighed. “That was brave of you Seungcheol. Stupid, but brave. Not every leader would say something so daring.” She paused to take a deep breath. “Ugh, I know I couldn’t stand as strong for my own members, as you did.”

To her right, Nayoung’s head hung low.

Jonghyun stood up and went over to be seated next to Nayoung. “Yah, Nayoung…” he softly said.

“Unnie, I don’t even know what’s happening! I can’t defend my members from something I don’t know!!! This feels worse than not knowing whether I’m debuting or not!”

Everyone in the room was familiar with the feeling, at the very least. When she debuted, Jiyoung had been quite a ways older than the average female idol’s debut age. For Jonghyun, there hadn’t even been any boys to debut together with when he entered the company. Seungcheol and the other Seventeen boys had had their hopes to debut practically played with. And of course, Nayoung had convinced herself that if at the end of Produce 101 she was still empty-handed, then she’d let her idol dreams go.

But Nayoung came out winning something out of that. But then again now she wasn’t too sure if there’s another chance to stand on stage again with the nine other girls of PRISTIN.

Jiyoung let out a deep sigh. “I’m so sorry Nayoung. That you have to go through this. You know, management always had issues with successful women.”

“And unsuccessful men,” Jonghyun murmured. Everyone heard anyway. Besides, everyone at the table knew it was his members’ choosing to enter the second season of Produce. Management had been basically willing to let them waste away until some of them had shown a semblance of a shot at winning.

It was Seungcheol who let out a sigh this time. “I acted stupidly making that statement on Vlive... Seventeen’s in good standing now with senior management, but after that…”

“They’d be stupid to try to stuff you now. Fans would know, if suddenly you’re putting out content without your members participating,” Jonghyun tried to assure him.

“But you already convinced management that when the time comes, you’re willing to take the rest of Seventeen if you do decide to get out of the company.” Jiyoung had asked them here for a reason and she’d be damned if she won’t get to it. “Don’t your contracts expire at the same time?”

“Jiyoung-noona, there’s still 3 years left of our contracts.”

“You’ll see that that time will fly by,” Jonghyun said.

Jiyoung looked at Seungcheol again. “That doesn’t negate the facts. If you decide to go, you can and you can without much sacrificing what Seventeen is now – you have a producer with his own connections in the industry, several brilliant composers, a choreographer, the fans… I’m sure by now you all have paid training debt several times over. You’d be able to stand on your own feet.”

“I tried not to think about it like that, Noona. It feels too much like betraying the agency.”

“It’s not. It’s not betrayal to think about your and your members’ welfare,” Jiyoung pressed. “If at any point you’re feeling like any of you are being taken advantage of or the agency is making you miss out on opportunities, it’s time to get out.”

Nayoung looked up to Jiyoung then. “Unnie, was it like that for you, towards the end? Was the agency stuffing you out?”

“They have a habit of milking a group until there’s something new that appears to be more profitable and they switch their focus to that and the cycle just repeats.”

Jonghyun could relate. Fortunately for him, Seungcheol has less of an idea of the feeling.

Nayoung’s eyes widened, as if realizing something. “Well now Pledis has its hands on Produce 48… Unnie, PRISTIN doesn’t have the same fall back as the boys,” she said almost helplessly. “Sungyeon is great, but she said it herself that she still has more to learn from Beomju-oppa and Jihoonie. The rest of us feel the same way about composing, making choreograph, all that. All we really truly have right now are the fans. They’re precious and show so much more love than we dare ask for, but I can’t be soon convinced that getting out is the best idea.”

“Then stay, maybe for at least one more comeback and let’s all see how that turns out.” Jonghyun said hopefully. “I’ve seen you all work very hard. Maybe something would come out great this time. If management still isn’t impressed…”

They were all thinking the same thing that time. _PRISTIN had been winning rookie awards left and right back in 2017. What should they do to impress management?_ But no one chose to say it out loud. If anyone, let Jonghyun be hopeful for them. His hopes might have been chipped away a little, but recently that jaded hope had helped him and NU’EST get somewhere.

A leader can only do so much to lead a group a little further down the flower path.

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting in my drafts since a little bit after that one Vlive when Seungcheol said the members were more important than the agency (non-verbatim). Of course this fic is just that, a fic, but if some statements hit close to home, I'll let that be.


End file.
